Stocks Rise Slightly Despite Disappointing Economic Data

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- U.S. benchmark stock indices were rising slightly Tuesday as investors considered a jump in inflation numbers and worse-than-expected data on the U.S. housing market ahead of the Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting.

Fading concerns about the turmoil in Iraq and retreating oil prices, however, removed some of the downward pressure. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was flat to slightly lower at 16,775.94. The S&P 500 was up 0.04% to 1938.52. The Nasdaq rose 0.3% to 4,333.39.

Crude oil futures for July were down 25 cents to $106.65 a barrel. Over the weekend, the militant group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) uploaded pictures and videos of it conducting mass executions of Iraqi soldiers. Phillip Futures investment analyst Howie Lee, like others, doesn't expect ISIS to really capture the Southern oil fields from their current bases in Northern Iraq since ISIS forces are relatively thin.

President Obama on Monday informed Congress that he would be sending as many as 275 military personnel to Iraq to provide support and security for U.S. personnel and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Obama is also reportedly mulling the deployment of up to 100 special operations troops to the country to counsel its armed forces amid the clashes with Sunni Muslim insurgents.

European markets staged a mild rebound Tuesday, partly in response to a slight reduction in oil prices and a hope that, for now, the renewed conflict in Iraq has been priced in.

Confidence in the U.S. housing market recovery experienced a setback Tuesday following a greater-than-expected decline in May housing starts and building permits. Housing starts fell 6.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of just more than 1 million units in May. There was also a downward revision to an increase of 12.7% in housing starts in March. Building permits fell 6.4% to an annual pace of 991,000 last month.